DECEMBER 2020 RETAILOBSERVER.COM
35
VIRTUAL
PRIMETIME
DRAWS RECORD ENGAGEMENT
I
n the face of an ongoing global pandemic, virtual meeting fatigue and worries over inventory
availability ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season, independent retailers showed up in
record numbers and showed how ready they were to network and engage with their fellow dealers
and vendor partners during Nationwide's first-ever Virtual PrimeTime.
"The last eight months have been a whirlwind of disruption," Nationwide President and Chief
Member Advocate Tom Hickman told members during the show. "COVID has changed the way we do
everything. Especially the way we buy and sell. But you haven't just muddled through the upheaval.
Many of you have fundamentally changed the face of American retail."
That change came in the form of innovative methods of engaging and transacting with customers.
Services like web chat, video chat, e-commerce-enabled websites, contactless payments, appointment
retailing and more all enabled dealers to keep providing customers in their markets with crucial access
to appliances and other products. And with every hurdle that's been thrown their way, independent
retailers have embraced the challenges and turned them into opportunities for innovation.
And just as Nationwide's vast network of dealers have had to innovate, so, too, did PrimeTime.
W H I L E I T W A S N ' T T H E P R I M E T I M E T H A N A N Y O N E E X P E C T E D W H E N
N A T I O N W I D E M A R K E T I N G G R O U P ' S M E M B E R S L E F T H O U S T O N
B A C K I N F E B R U A R Y , T H E G R O U P ' S I N D E P E N D E N T R E T A I L E R S
D E F I N I T E L Y S H O W C A S E D T H E I R G R I T , R E S I L I E N C Y A N D A B I L I T Y
T O " O U T W O R K . O U T W I T . O U T W I N . " T H E C O M P E T I T I O N A T T H I S
O C T O B E R ' S V I R T U A L P R I M E T I M E .
